Three food delivery riders were rushed to hospital after an e-bike battery exploded in their apartment building in Sydney's Inner West.
Fire fighters were called to Annandale around midday as more than 100 residents were forced to evacuate the unit complex on Booth Street.
One man was seen being taken out on a stretcher.
Click for video.
He and his two roommates had finished a shift around 3am and had left their bikes downstairs as the batteries charged.
Resident Michael Waples said he heard "a loud thud".
"At first I thought someone was moving furniture, then I heard a scream and commotion," he said.
"Two dudes emerged from the flat and there was smoke. They were saying 'there's a fire there's a fire'."
Other neighbours found an injured international student in the hallway and helped him downstairs.
Good on them. And good luck to him:
He was treated by paramedics before being taken to Royal North Shore hospital in a serious condition with burns to 40 percent of his body.
Assuming that estimate is accurate, the patient faces a very challenging recovery. Again, good luck and best wishes.
That immolation followed an electric truck fire a few days earlier in Melbourne:
Your host there is Simon, whose frequently-updated channel is essential viewing. Here’s his latest:
Being a proper car guy, Simon has little time for Tesla's Cybertruck. For previous lithium-ion observations, please take a look at last week's column or the Sky TV video version.
UPDATE. New York:
A Bronx man was killed when a lithium-ion battery sparked a fire Sunday inside a New York City Housing Authority building, the FDNY said Monday …
On Monday, crews spent the day cleaning the smoke-tarnished halls, while NYPD Community Affairs officers went from door to door asking residents if they had any e-bikes.
And then presumably telling them to escape while they’re still able:
UPDATE II:
Disposable vapes are causing at least five fires a day inside Queensland recycling plants alone, according to industry experts.
National Waste and Recycling Industry Council CEO Rick Ralph said the fire risk had reached crisis levels across the country.
He said the Queensland figure can be multiplied by seven when taking a toll of the national risk.
"That's about 35 fires a day, in some form, in recycling facilities," Mr Ralph said.
"It is directly attributed to lithium-ion batteries because there is no effective and no easy, proper disposal for those items.”
Everything else is regulated to death. Lithium-ion firestarters, however, seem remarkably bureaucracy-resistant.
This year, the Townsville City Council in north Queensland said there had been five fires at the city's landfill, six at the recycling facility and 33 smouldering events.
A smouldering event three years ago at a Northern Beaches recycling centre set fire to 50 tonnes of garbage, “sending a plume of smoke over neighbouring suburbs”.
How delightfully environmental.
Local Burning is Way Worse than Global Warming - Daily Telegraph
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